This is a series of wisdom and mystical knowledge that will be examined... This knowledge will show the hidden teachings of Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef also known as Jesus the Christ but will also include esoteric knowledge from the Mystics of all religions and philosophies...
All of these Mystics will ask you to find the ' Source of All ', and to ' Know Thyself '... Enter into the most important experience of your life...

Many names have been placed on ‘This.’ We have called it “life,” “God,” “spirit,” “Oneness,” “enlightenment,” “presence,” “non-duality,” “awareness,” “Brahman,”, the “Tao,” and a host of others. Yet none of the names are that which they describe. All words are concepts. They are memory. No matter what word you use to describe life, the word is not it.

It is easy to become blinded by spiritual teachings, including non-dual pointers. The ideas are repeated so much that they become conditioning. Then we look at the present moment through the learned ideas, rather than through bare naked presence.

Life is not an idea. Be very clear about that. See that every pointer in this book or anywhere else is merely conditioning. It is some idea put forth to point you to a seeing beyond ideas.

A teacher or book can only use concepts to point you away from reliance on your memorized concepts. Can a concept see? No. It can only point to the pure seeing available through bare naked presence. This seeing is a knowing that is deeper than conceptual knowledge. This knowing reveals directly that to which the words “God,” “Brahman,” “enlightenment” and all the other words are pointing. There is no separate “I” who knows or finds “enlightenment” or “God.” Those are concepts giving rise to illusory separation. There is only this unnamable knowing. No subject. No object. Just ‘This.’

Scott Kiloby, Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment

I remember the first time I had this astonishing experience. I was fond of disappearing from London whenever the weather allowed and wandering alongside the river Thames in its more picturesque country parts. If the day was sunny I would stretch my feet out, lie down in the grass, pull out notebook and pen from my pocket--knowing that thoughts would eventually arise that would have for me an instructive or even revelatory nature, apart from those ordinary ones which were merely expressive.

One day, while I was waiting for these thoughts to arise, I lost the feeling that I was there at all. I seemed to dissolve and vanish from that place, but not from consciousness. Something was there, a presence, certainly not me, but I was fully aware of it. It seemed to be something of the highest importance, the only thing that mattered.

After a few minutes I came back, discovered myself in time and space again; but a great peace had touched me and a very benevolent feeling was still with me. I looked at the trees, the shrubs, the flowers, and the grass and felt a tremendous sympathy with them and then and then when I thought of other persons a tremendous benevolence towards them.

Our minds may believe that we need subtle and complex spiritual teachings to guide us to Reality, but we do not.

In fact, the more complex the teaching is, the easier it is for the mind to hide from itself amidst the complexity while imagining that it is advancing toward enlightenment. But it is often only advancing in creating more and more intricate circles to walk around and around in.

The indispensable element of any spiritual teaching does not lie in the teaching but rather in the sincerity and fearlessness of the person who applies it. Even though at times you may feel quite lost in your own foolishness, as William Blake said, “A fool who persists in his folly will become wise.”

Man's selfishness shows itself in wanting to get the better of his fellow man. If we developed humanity we should do differently. We should be satisfied with a slice of bread if there were another in need, but as it is, it happens that even when we are fed ourselves, we do not wish anyone else to share the food. The human heart can only be really satisfied by knowing that the other person is happy. True pleasure lies in the sharing of joy with another. From the day that we realize this we begin to act as human beings.

A person who, alone, has seen something beautiful, who has heard something harmonious, who has tasted something delicious, who has smelt something fragrant, may have enjoyed it, but not completely. The complete joy is in sharing one's joy with others. For the selfish one who enjoys himself and does not care for others, whether he enjoys things of the earth or things of heaven, his enjoyment is not complete.

Tawazu in Sufi terms means something more than hospitality. It is laying before one's friend willingly what one has, in other words sharing with one's friend all the good one has in life, and with it, enjoying life better. When this tendency to tawazu is developed, things that give one joy and pleasure become more enjoyable by sharing with another. This tendency comes from the aristocracy of the heart. It is generosity and even more than generosity. For the limit of generosity is to see another pleased in his pleasure, but to share one's own pleasure with another is greater than generosity. It is a quality which is foreign to a selfish person, and the one who shows this quality is on the path of saintliness.

In reality there is no killing and no dying. The real does not die, the unreal never lived.

I am told I was born. I do not remember. I am told I shall die. I do not expect it. You tell me I have forgotten or I lack imagination. But I just cannot remember what never happened, nor expect the patently impossible. Bodies are born and bodies die, but what is it to me? Bodies come and go in consciousness, and consciousness itself has its roots in me. I am life, and mine are mind and body.

You can't help surviving! The real you is timeless and beyond birth and death. And the body will survive as long as it is needed. It is not important that it should live long. A full life is better than a long life.

A realization beyond words. Intellectualizing Oneness will provide, at best, a good conceptual framework of non-duality. Although it may be helpful to have a conceptual framework, Oneness itself is not a concept. The descriptions are pointing to an actual realization.

Oneness is merely a label for realization in the way the word “juice” is pointing to the orange, tangy-sweet liquid you drink for breakfast. The word is never the thing it describes. Incessantly thinking about Oneness is like having your head stuck in a map of Scotland while driving in Scotland, missing the actual territory to which the word “Scotland” is pointing.

Oneness simply is. You cannot think your way into it. The dream self tries to step outside of Oneness and intellectualize her way into it. Don’t fall into that trap. Drop whatever concept you are holding onto right now (including the word “Oneness”) and simply notice the non-conceptual awareness that is here. Notice the fact that you simply are. Return—again and again if necessary—to the simple fact that you are. That awareness reveals the seeing.

Once Oneness is revealed, see that conceptualization and intellectualization arise within what you are. They cannot provide the direct experience of what you are. They can merely describe it. There is nothing wrong with talking about or describing Oneness. But recognize directly what the words are pointing to first. Then use descriptions to point others to this realization beyond words.

Scott Kiloby, Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment

The world is but the surface of the mind and the mind is infinite. What we call thoughts are just ripples in the mind. When the mind is quiet it reflects reality. When it is motionless through and through, it dissolves and only reality remains.

What is going on is a projection of your mind. A weak mind cannot control its own projections. Be aware, therefore, of your mind and its projections. You cannot control what you do not know. On the other hand, knowledge gives power. In practice it is very simple. To control yourself, know yourself.

Deal with your mind first. When you realize that your mind too is a part of nature, the duality will cease. Because nature is in the mind; without the mind, where is nature?

The first is the art of mind-stilling, of emptying consciousness of every thought and form whatsoever. This is mysticism or Yoga.

The disciple's ascent should not stop at the contemplation of anything that has shape or history, name or habitation, however powerfully helpful this may have formerly been to the ascent itself.

Only in the mysterious void of Pure Spirit, in the undifferentiated Mind, lies his last goal as a mystic.

The second is to grasp the essential nature of the ego and of the universe and to obtain direct perception that both are nothing but a series of ideas which unfold themselves within our minds. This is the metaphysics of Truth.

The combination of these two activities brings about the realization of his true Being as the ever beautiful and eternally beneficent Overself. This is philosophy.

On 15 November 1244, a man in a black suit from head to toe, came to the famous inn of Sugar Merchants of Konya. His name was Shams Tabrizi. He was claiming to be a travelling merchant. As it was said in Haji Bektash Veli's book, "Makalat", he was looking for something. Which he was going to find in Konya. Eventually he found Rumi riding a horse.

One day Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, passing by, asked him, "What are you doing?" Rumi scoffingly replied, "Something you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the unlearned.) On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, "What is this?" To which Shams replied, "Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the learned.)

A second version of the tale has Shams passing by Rumi who again is reading a book. Rumi regards him as an uneducated stranger. Shams asks Rumi what he is doing, to which Rumi replies, "Something that you do not understand!" At that moment, the books suddenly catch fire and Rumi asks Shams to explain what happened. His reply was, "Something you do not understand."[6]

Another version of the first encounter is this: In the marketplace of Konya, amid the cotton stalls, sugar vendors, and vegetable stands, Rumi rode through the street, surrounded by his students. Shams caught hold of the reins of his donkey and rudely challenged the master with two questions. “Who was the greater mystic, Bayazid [a Sufi saint] or Muhammad?” Shams demanded. "What a strange question! Muhammad is greater than all the saints," Rumi replied. "So, why is it then that Muhammad said to God, ‘I didn’t know you as I should have,’ while Bayazid proclaimed, ‘Glory be to me! How exalted is my Glory! [that is, he claimed the station of God himself]?" Rumi explained that Muhammad was the greater of the two, because Bayazid could be filled to capacity by a single experience of divine blessings. He lost himself completely and was filled with God. Muhammad’s capacity was unlimited and could never be filled. His desire was endless, and he was always thirsty. With every moment he came closer to God, and then regretted his former distant state. For that reason he said, “I have never known you as I should have.” It is recorded that after this exchange of words, Rumi felt a window open at the top of his head and saw smoke rise to heaven. He cried out, fell to the ground, and lost consciousness for one hour. Shams, upon hearing these answers, realized that he was face to face with the object of his longing, the one he had prayed God to send him. When Rumi awoke, he took Shams’s hand, and the two of them returned to Rumi’s school together on foot. They secluded themselves for forty days, speaking to no one. ,[7]

After several years with Rumi in Konya, Shams left and settled in Khoy. As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his departed friend and master. In Rumi's poetry Shams becomes a guide of Allah's (Creator) love for mankind; Shams was a sun ("Shams" means "Sun" in Arabic) shining the Light of Sun as guide for the right path evading darkness for Rumi heart, mind & body on earth. The source of Shams' teachings was the knowledge of Ali ibn Abu Talib, who is also called the father of sufism.

“My teacher called this world ‘the great heartbreak.’ When we really begin to wake up to our true nature, we become more conscious of the suffering around us. We feel the people and the events of our lives more profoundly, not less profoundly. We become more present here and now.

What we see is that, even though our vision may have expanded, even though we may have woken up not just to reality, but as reality, still we can’t control anyone. Everything and everyone has their own life to live, and we can’t just wipe away their suffering because our hearts are open.

Although we would love to have everyone wake up and be happy, part of the heartbreak is accepting this moment, this world, just as it is.”

the Gospel of Thomas
from the Scholars Version translation published in
The Complete Gospels

These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas
Thomas recorded.
1
And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not
taste death."
2
Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find.
2
When
they find, they will be disturbed.
3
When they are disturbed, they will marvel,
4
and will rule over all."
3
Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) imperial rule is
in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you.
2
If they say to you, 'It is
in the sea,' then the fish will precede you.
3
Rather, the (Father's) imperial rule
is inside you and outside you.
4
When you know yourselves, then you will be
known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father.
5
But
if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the
poverty."
4
Jesus said, "The person old in days won't hesitate to ask a little child seven
days old about the place of life, and that person will live.
2
For many of the first
will be last,
3
and will become a single one."
5
Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you
will be disclosed to you.
2
For there is nothing hidden that won't be revealed."
6
His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How
should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?"
2
Jesus said, "Don't lie,
3
and don't do what you hate,
4
because all things are
disclosed before heaven.
5
After all, there is nothing hidden that won't be
revealed,
6
and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed."
7
Jesus said, "Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion
becomes human.
2
And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still
will become human

When you enter the stillness of the eternal now by letting go of the fictional me,
you see that reality, enlightenment, or God is like a flame. It's alive, ever moving, and
ever dancing—the flame is always here. But the flame is impermanent.

There is nothing
about a flame that is permanent, static, or stable. If it were, it would be dead.

Reality is
alive, ever on the move, like a flame that leaps up from the log into the air.

Truth is
continuous movement. This movement, this aliveness of Truth, is constant. It never
ceases. It is timeless. Impermanence is the only continuous thing, the only permanent
thing.

Man likes complexity. He does not want to take only one step; it is more interesting to look forward to millions of steps. The man who is seeking the truth gets into a maze, and that maze interests him. He wants to go through it a thousand times more. It is just like children. Their whole interest is in running about; they do not want to see the door and go in until they are very tired. So it is with grown-up people. They all say that they are seeking truth, but they like the maze. That is why the mystics made the greatest truths a mystery, to be given only to the few who were ready for them, letting the others play because it was the time for them to play.

What holds man back? It is his love of complexity. Life makes for man a puzzle, and like a child he enjoys the puzzle. Truth is too simple for him; he attaches importance to what he cannot understand. If he is told that there is a sacred mountain a thousand miles away he will walk to it. In the ancient days the people were told that if they walked in a circle round the temple a hundred times they would gain much, and they went and felt they had made a pilgrimage. Such is human nature.

Man longs for truth, he searches for truth, and yet he wants to escape from truth. Man wants mystery. He wants something that can be put into words. So long as the seeker has that desire he will remain in a puzzle, but for the one who wishes to come out, the door is open. The heart of man is the abode of God. Christ said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you'.... Man has accustomed himself to think of things that are far from truth. Even in religion as well as in everyday life he is continually denying truth, and so he wanders far away because he becomes accustomed to everything but truth.

Man is seeking for phenomena, he wants wonderworking, communication with ghosts or spirits, he is looking for something complex, and yet the simplest thing and the most valuable thing in life is to find one's true self.

A person once came to me who was studying Christianity but who had run into a stone wall in his study. He could make no further progress at the time, so he came to me to try Zen meditation.

We discussed this and that, and I finally said to him, "If you wish to resolve the basic problem, you must meditate, but there is one condition."

“A condition?"

"Yes. When monks enter the Zen meditative process, they must abandon Buddhism. Likewise, if you don’t abandon Christianity, you will never be successful in your study. You must abandon Christianity not because it is Christianity, but because it is a belief system. You must rid yourself of the constraint called Christianity just as a monk must rid himself of the constraint called Buddhism."

"Well, Sunim, I’ll come back after I think it over."

"You're really saying that you're not going to come back, aren't you?
Well, if you can't abandon Christianity, then don't come back. You could meditate for a hundred years, but you'd just be wasting your time.

- Echoes from Mt Kaya

Ven. Tong Songchol (1912~1993), also SeongCheol, one of the great Zen masters in the last century was also called the ‘Living Buddha of Korea’.

Defending yourself arises from the fear of death. It may not feel like it at the time, but when you find yourself defending your thoughts strongly, you are defending the sense of self invested in your thoughts. The sense of self being referred to here is the thought-based, time-bound self made up of thoughts of past, future, and resistance to this moment. Who you believe yourself to be depends on the content of that realm of thoughts. When someone is challenging you on the level of the mind, they are challenging some position, belief, idea, or other self-image within that realm. In response to such an attack, the energy behind that self comes to defend itself out of fear of its own death.
When you are verbally attacked or when you meet resistance or disagreement from someone, simply notice the thoughts and emotions that rise up in defense within the body and mind. Feel and face the sense of diminishment of self without rationalizing, judging, reacting, or defending. Allow the emotions and thoughts to rise fully in awareness without telling stories about how they should or should not be happening. These emotions and thoughts burn themselves out when they are simply seen and not manipulated in any way.

Enlightenment is just a word pointing to the seeing of that thought-based, time-bound self as an illusion. When it is seen as an illusion, there is no more psychological need to defend what is unreal.

Scott Kiloby, Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment

It is the awakening of the soul which is mentioned in the Bible: unless the soul is born again it will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

For the soul to be born again means that it is awakened after having come on earth, and entering the kingdom of heaven means entering this world in which we are now standing, the kingdom which turns into heaven as soon as the point of view has changed.

Is it not interesting and most wonderful to think that the same earth that we walk on is earth to one person and heaven to another?

And it is still more interesting to notice that it is we who change it from earth to heaven. This change comes not by study nor by anything else but by the changing of our point of view.

There is a tendency of mind to believe that compassion must be cultivated or developed. But only thought would say that. If you notice thought, it is primarily self-centered. Our thoughts about others often say more about ourselves than anything. An outward judgment of someone else is often an inward attempt to build up or maintain the story of “me.” For example, if I see other people as flawed, this makes “me” believe that I am not flawed. I get to feel morally superior to the other person.

True compassion is not cultivated or developed through thinking. It is realized to be a natural attribute of awareness. There can be, relatively speaking, a deeper and deeper recognition of this natural compassion as there is less and less reliance on thought for a sense of self v. other. But compassion is an aspect of what we are. All that we can do is recognize, deeply, what we are—awareness.

When someone is suffering, notice the tendency to make judgments about them or even to fix them through thinking about them. What is noticing is awareness. That awareness contains true compassion. Trust it completely. Any necessary response to the person’s suffering comes directly from the inherent compassion of awareness rather than from judgment.

Scott Kiloby, Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment

On coming to earth, man, who is the instrument of God, loses connection with that divine power whose instrument he is, thus keeping not only himself but even God from helping His will to be done. When man, who is born to be the instrument of God, does not perform his mission properly he naturally feels dissatisfied.

It does not mean that he does not accomplish what he desires, but it is the reason why he is unhappy.

... Spiritual knowledge does not lie in learning something, but in discovering something; in breaking the fetters of the false consciousness and in allowing the soul to unfold itself with light and power.

What does the word 'spiritual' really mean? Spiritual means spirit-conscious. When a person is conscious of his body, he cannot be spiritual. It is like a king who does not know his kingship. ... If man does not realize the kingdom of God within himself nor realize his spirit to be a king, he does not accomplish the purpose of life.

Man's greatest privilege is to become a suitable instrument of God, and until he knows this he has not realized his true purpose in life.

The whole tragedy in the life of man is his ignorance of this fact. From the moment a man realizes this he lives the real life, the life of harmony between God and man.

When Jesus Christ said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' this teaching was an answer to the cry of humanity: some crying, 'I have no wealth,' others crying, 'I have no rest,' others crying, 'My situation in life is difficult,' My friends are troubling me,' or, 'I want a position, wealth.' The answer to them all is, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.'

I would call "full-circle awakening" a full circle journey, if you will, from identification with the merely or exclusively human...... to the awakening to transcendence, the dimension of "Spirit" or pure consciousness......... to an opening and return movement back down and into the embodied human and phenomenal dimension (Incarnational/integral spirituality)...but the return movement back to the human/phenomenal dimension would now be seen from a radically different perspective of the transcendent/absolute as the centralidentification rather than from a very ego-centric position that sees the personal "me" as the center of everything.

So in the end, what I am calling "full circle awakening" integrates and includes the personal self, the phenomenal world, human culture and social realities, but NOT from an ego-centric, absolute position of the "me" as the center.

"Full circle awakening" is not an annihilation or denial of the me, the "ego" or personal sense of self, but rather it is a de-centralization or a "redeeming" of it. It takes the personal sense of self with its body/mind, personality structure from the central place of identification, it "de-thrones it" if you will. But it then INCLUDES it by acknowledging that a personal sense of self is part and parcel of human life and is included in who and what we are on a phenomenal level.

Full circle awakening actually even has a certain appreciation for and embrace of, the personal self structure as a vehicle or container for the transcendent dimension of Spirit/divinity/pure consciousness to express itself and incarnate into the phenomenal/physical/human world. In full circle awakening thepersonal self stops being the center of the universe and becomes the humble servant of God/consciousness/Life. In full circle awakening, the structure of "a person", of a "you" and a "me", becomes the vehicle for expressing the Christ or Atman Consciousness.......and each of our "vehicles" does this in their own particular, unique and beautiful way. In a way that has quite literally, never been seen before and will never be seen again.

This approach of "full circle awakening" involves a "growing up" as well as a "waking up" and a very integral appreciation for not only the transcendent dimension of who and what we are, but also for the physical, human, bodily, personal dimensions of who we are.

"I am blind and do not see the things of this world: but when light comes from Above, it enlightens my heart and I can see, for the eye of my heart sees everything: and through this vision I can help my people.

The heart is the sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit (Wakantanka) dwells, and this is the eye. This is the eye of Wakantaka by which He sees all things, and through which we see Him.

If the heart is not pure, Wakantanka cannot be seen, and if you should die in this ignorance, your soul shall not return immediately to Wakantanka, but it must be purified by wandering about in the world. In order to know the center of the heart in which is the mind of Wakantanka, you must be pure and good, and live in the manner that Wakantanka has taught us. The man who is thus pure contains the universe within the pocket of his heart."

The four sides of the pyramid of being--thinking, feeling, doing, and intuiting--must be drawn together, properly developed, and held together in proper balance. The inclination to fragment the self is the inclination to follow the easiest path, not the needed path. The whole person needs both developing and balancing; part of it cannot be left safely in neglect while the other part is intensively cultivated.

The philosophic goal is to be spiritually aware in all parts of the psyche, with the complete life as the final result. The aspirant must engage the whole of his person in the work of self-illumination, and not merely a part of it.

If only a piece of it is active in this work, only a piece can get illumined or inspired. Even meditation itself--so important for the awakening of intuition--is only a part, and a limited part, of the Quest.

Wholeness must be the ideal, if the whole of the Overself's light is to be brought forth and shone down into every day's living, thinking, feeling, and being. Anything less yields a lesser result. And if the whole is not held properly, is unbalanced, it yields a distorted result.

Is thought independent of awareness? Steam appears in space. The space gives rise to the steam and permeates it. The steam appears to be a separate form. But the transparent, spacious steam does not have an existence that is separate from or independent of the space permeating it. Just as the space gives rise to the steam, the steam will eventually release back into space without any need to manipulate it.

Likewise, there is no way to conceptualize one’s way into non-conceptual, empty awareness. Awareness gives rise to thought and permeates it. The thought appears to be a separate, solid form. But when awareness is awake to the thought, the thought is seen not to have an existence that is solid or independent of awareness. Just as awareness gives rise to the thought, the thought will eventually release back into awareness without any need to manipulate it.

Everything arises and falls back into its spacious source. If there is a seeing directly of what is being pointed to, all thoughts about enlightenment are seen to be forms that are not independent of awareness itself. Allow thought to arise and fall on its own. In the space that is left when thought releases, your true non-conceptual identity reveals itself. In that recognition, you see that who you are—this spacious awareness—is there regardless of whether there is thinking or no thinking.

The fact that many a man who goes his own way ends in ruin means nothing. . . . He must obey his own law, as if it were a daemon whispering to him of new and wonderful paths. . . .

There are not a few who are called awake by the summons of the voice, whereupon they are at once set apart from the others, feeling themselves confronted with a problem about which the others know nothing.

In most cases it is impossible to explain to the others what has happened, for any understanding is walled off by impenetrable prejudices. "You are no different from anybody else," they will chorus, or, "there's no such thing," and even if there is such a thing, it is immediately branded as "morbid." . .

He is at once set apart and isolated, as he has resolved to obey the law that commands him from within "His own law!" everybody will cry. But he knows better: it is the law. . . . The only meaningful life is a life that strives for the individual Realization—absolute and unconditional—of its own particular law. . . . To the extent that man is untrue to the law of his being . . . he has failed to realize his life's meaning.

The undiscovered vein within us is a living part of the psyche; classical Chinese philosophy names this interior way "Tao," and likens it to a flow of water that moves irresistibly towards its goal. To rest in Tao means fulfillment, wholeness, one's destination reached, one's mission done; the beginning, end, and perfect realization of the meaning of existence innate in all things.

Real understanding translates itself into spontaneous and uncontrived activity through the same latent power of virtuality that exhibits itself in the miraculous fruition of plants, the formation of eyes and ears, the circulation of blood and the subtle reticulation of nerves.

Such power is generated without conscious direction, and the man who has it will usually be so steeped in ordinariness and anonymity as to go unnoticed by others.

Yet his action will be the purest, most effective and powerful of all action precisely because it coincides with the universal process itself, without any sense of volition whatsoever.

Do you see the incredible limitation built into dualistic thought? Thought can only land on one side or the other. It cannot hold two opposite views. Thought will only show you a partial, fragmented, dualistic view of life.

Oneness can only be revealed through non-dual, formless awareness. Non-dual awareness is not a thought. It is what is looking right now before thought fragments your present experience into apparent dualism.

In reading that last paragraph, it may sound as if you need to reach a state of no thought before Oneness is realized. No. Once you see that who you are is this non-dual, empty awareness, you see that every dualistic thought is also empty. You (empty awareness) are appearing as every dualistic perspective. Formlessness is form and form is formlessness.

Dualistic thought is seen through. "Seeing through" thought means that thought no longer creates a rigidsense of separation. There is no longer identification with any view that appears in the realm of dualistic opposites. Thought loses its power over you. Each dualistic view is seen to be ultimately as empty as the awareness from which it comes.

It is utterly simple. In a moment, you gain a life free of negotiation and
bargaining.

This is what the Fire of Truth removes: your negotiation and your bargaining
with what is, the desire for anyone or anything to change. You realize that no changes,
not even changes in yourself, will make you happier.

To receive this gift fully, it must be
given to everything and everybody everywhere.

This that is awake doesn't want anybody
to change or improve at all. That's the fire. That's the ash of the fire.

You realize, ''A
minute ago I wanted you to change, but now I don't. You're fine. Everybody's fine, and
everything's fine."

What happened? Nobody changed and nobody conformed to your
pattern, yet a happiness is there, made more beautiful because they didn't change. It is
more beautiful because of the diversity of beings and life. This that's awake is the same
for each of us. And everything else is a beautiful, wonderful expression of diversity.

Notice that any time you come into right now, right now is tremendously simple.
You lose all of your agendas to be somewhere else, to be something, or to get
somewhere. Right here is totally adequate.

You know you are not a problem to be solved,
and neither is your neighbor or the world. This is revolutionary for this current state of
human consciousness.

Can you imagine if you really let it in that you are not a problem to
be solved in any way?

Imagine you knew that anything that would tell you otherwise is
just a movement of thought in the mind that says, "Whatever is, isn't the way it is
supposed to be."

So the biggest act of compassion starts within. And when the self is no
longer seen as a problem, this is called "the peace that surpasses all understanding."

Until you can see, literally, that everybody is the Buddha, then you are not seeing
things the way they are. Mother Teresa once said that when she is treating the sick and
starving, she is treating Jesus in everyone. This is not a nice spiritual platitude. It is actual
concrete reality.

The true Christ is in every being. It is the same as saying the Buddha is
in everyone. And the only thing that can perceive this is the Christ within. Only the
Buddha within perceives Buddha. Only the Oneness within can perceive the Oneness.
The me, will never perceive Oneness.

The thought-form whose reverence helps him to keep concentrated, the mental image whose worship holds his attention quite absorbed, justifies a place for itself in the meditator's method.

Only at an advanced hour may he rightly put them aside. But when that hour arrives, he should not hesitate to do so.

The devotional type of meditation, if unaccompanied by higher metaphysical reflection, will not yield results of a lasting character although it will yield emotional gratification of an intense character.

Overself is only an object of meditation so long as he knows it only as something apart from himself.

That is good but not good enough. For he is worshipping a graven image, not the sublime reality. He has to rise still higher and reach it, not as a separate "other," but as his very self.

If you could really understand right now that your thoughts aren't real, you could give up all seeking and you would find yourself living in perfect being, pure consciousness and unconditional bliss/happiness in this very moment. You would find yourself effortlessly and beautifully living in God.

YOUR THOUGHTS AREN'T REAL....They are real as thoughts, but they are not the same thing as concrete reality HERE AND NOW. They are a filter that is placed over reality most all the time in the majority of people on the planet.

The first step in "practicing" unhappiness is believing your thoughts.

Adya once told me that when he was a little kid, this was totally obvious to him. He suddenly realized one day that the reason adults were unhappy was because they just believed that their thoughts were real!

"Wow, how silly and unnecessarily serious and concerned these adults are!" he realized.... "They must actually be a bit mad!" And then he went out and played!

Then he said, as he grew up a bit himself, he somehow forgot this truth.
But then one day, he remembered it again!

The attention must be concentrated at this stage solely on the hidden soul. No other aim and even no symbol of It may now be held.

When he has become so profoundly absorbed in this contemplation that his whole being, his whole psyche of thought, feeling, will, and intuition are mingled and blent in it, there may come suddenly and unexpectedly a displacement of awareness.

He actually passes out of what he has hitherto known as himself into a new dimension and becomes a different being.

When first experienced and unknown, there is the fear that this is death itself. It is indeed what is termed in mystical traditions of the West as "dying to oneself" and of the East as "passing away from oneself."

But when one has repeated periodically and grown familiar with this experience, there is not only no fear but the experience is eagerly sought and welcomed. There I dissolved myself in the lake of the Water of Life.

Many come to the spiritual search with intense emotional suffering revolving around past events.

No matter what the content of the story, the structure of suffering is the same: identification with thought and emotion. In other words, regardless of whether the content of the suffering centers on being abused by a parent during childhood, repeatedly being rejected in romantic relationships or some other reason, the suffering is caused by identification with stories about the past and the negative emotions that arise in conjunction with those stories.

When the thought of the past arises, simply notice it. In noticing the thought, you see that awareness is what is noticing. This present awareness is who you really are. You are not the thought of past occurring in awareness. Thought comes and goes. You—awareness—do not come and go.

Once you notice the thought, allow awareness to notice the painful emotion arising in conjunction with the thought. Awareness has no agenda to escape emotional suffering. Only thought tries to escape emotion. The movement to escape suffering only prolongs it, as it remains unfaced.

If a thought arises about how you can escape the pain somehow, allow that thought to come and go in awareness too. In resting in awareness, the mental and emotional suffering is allowed to be exactly as it is. When suffering is made conscious in this way, without a desire to be free of it,it transmutes into awareness.

To know that you are neither in the body nor in the mind, though aware of both, is already self-knowledge.

So many words you have learnt, so many you have spoken. You know everything, but you do not know yourself. For the self is not known through words, only direct insight will reveal it. Look within, search within.

Learning words is not enough. You may know the theory, but without the actual experience of yourself as the impersonal and unqualified centre of being, love and bliss, mere verbal knowledge is sterile.

Whatever you do to work upon the ego, whether you remove this weakness or improve that faculty, it will always be ego and your consciousness will always remain within its tightly closed circle.

In the time you give to such work you could be occupying yourself with thought of the non-ego, the Overself, and dwelling in this thought until the sunshine behind it bursts through and you bask in the glory.

Liberation, as that word is used in these reflections, means freedom from suffering, not from pain itself. Suffering is the psychological accumulation of mental and emotional energy over time in the form of a story of “me.” Pain is a natural, dualistic occurrence in life that can arise in the present moment.

For example, you are suffering from chronic physical pain in the leg. Liberation will not free you from physical pain. Liberation is freedom from attachment to the psychological story of suffering surrounding the pain.

If made completely conscious, the story might appear as “My life is so hard because of this pain.”

Identification with the mental story, and the emotions that accompany it, creates an overlay placed over the actual physical pain experienced in this moment. The mind is adding time to the pain. The result is psychological and emotional suffering in the form of the story of “me”—the one who is suffering.

Likewise, liberation may not completely free you of anger, sadness, and other emotions and states. These emotions can be natural responses to particular life situations. Liberation frees you from attachment to these emotions and states.

In liberation, anger, sadness, elation, frustration, and other emotions and states arise and fall spontaneously in awareness (but with no attachment). Feelings are directly seen and felt and then they naturally die. Stated another way, these states and emotions arise to no one.

Scott Kiloby, . Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment

If you went to my teacher, and had the great revelation of 'no self', of emptiness, I'm nothing, and the freedom of that, and that's totally true ... I'm nothing, and the great liberation of realizing that ... then the next thing, you'd get this great smile, and you'd see that my teacher’s really happy that you've finally kind of woken up out of your some-thingness, and then you'd get a quick rap on the head, crack, with a stick. 'Okay Mr. nobody, who did that hurt ?'

Then you'd scratch your head, and walk out of the room, hmmm... 'gosh I really thought I was nobody, there for a minute' ...

Of course it was true ... it wasn't a way of saying what was discovered wasn't real. It was a way of saying what was discovered, may not be the whole ... the whole truth, may not be the end. There may be more to this.

The discovering our infinite formlessness , also can lead to, realizing it's all one. Form ... formlessness ... is one. So this form, that appears to have a self, that appears to have me, appears to have, is not other than the formless one.

It's on the level of talk, the truth is fraught with total contradictions.

And the more awake we become, we become capable of holding these contradictions, effortlessly, because the truth, the true I, the true I of awakening, actually sees the oneness, and the mind sees in the oneness these totally contradictory experiences, are happening, simultaneously.

Of being the all, and everything, the supreme reality, and being this particular, individual, human being.

And both are true.

As we awaken, we begin to discover, one to the exclusion of the other.

First you're a human being ... then you're Mr. nobody ... and then Mr. nobody, is a human being.

And they're both simultaneously, true ... they're both simultaneously happening.

The danger of teachings is that, almost everything that can be said ... the opposite can be said to be almost equally true.